Outdoor barbecue grilling has been acknowledged as one of the great American pastimes and is mentioned in the same breath as, baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. Due to its popularity and extent of use, outdoor barbecue grilling has evolved throughout the years in attempts to address common problems encountered while barbecue grilling.
For instance, traditional charcoal grilling includes the use of a plurality of charcoal briquets which must be ignited with flammable lighter fluid. However, it is well known that a charcoal coal fire is sometimes hottest at its center while the periphery of the charcoal coal fire has a cooler temperature. Thus, timing of the placement of the meat on the fire is essential. The barbecue chef must use discretion when placing the food to be cooked onto the grill, for if the placement is too early, the meat may be charred and if the placement is too late, there may not be enough of a sufficient coal fire to complete the cooking of the meat, nor may there be a high enough temperature to kill any existing bacteria in the meat. In addition, if the meat is placed onto the grill prior to the complete burning off of the lighter fluid, the meat's taste could be adversely affected. Moreover, early types of lighter fluid and its volatile characteristics sometimes created a dangerous combination.
Various improvements have included gel type lighter fluids that did not flare up when ignited. In addition, the charcoal itself was manufactured to include such a flammable material so that a user needs only to strike a match to prepare the charcoal.
However, these improvements failed to correct the uneven cooling temperatures and short life span of an optimum cooking temperature produced by the burning coals. Moreover, as the meats are placed over burning coals the grease droppings associated with the cooking of such meats causes the coals to flare up back toward the meat. This flare up causes charring of the exterior of the meat and may ultimately ruin a meal. In addition, the smoke caused by such a flare of also affects the taste of the meat.
Other attempts to correct these problems included the advent of propane gas barbecue grills. However, such grills cannot duplicate the culinary satisfaction of an open fire barbecue grilling of a meal.
In addition, recent studies conducted by the MAYO clinic and the American Cancer Society have produced results which indicate that individuals who barbecue their foods, in particular meats, three or more times a month for a five-year period placed those people in a higher percentile for susceptibility to particular types of cancer.
Some of the suggestions from these studies to reduce such risks are the following, use of a high temperature to eliminate bacteria, reduce "flare up" caused by grease dripping from the cooking meats and avoid charring of the meat. Some of these studies also indicated that carcinogenic toxins are built up in the meats being cooked due to "flare up" and charring of the meat.